I'm sure there's some reason that nobody's ever done this (that I know of), but what would prevent the White Sox from "renting" Chris Sale to another team for one or two season?

Think about it like renting an apartment you bought for cheap in a recently-turned-upscale neighborhood...Sale is owed 3.5m next year and 6.0m the year after. He's worth much more than that. The White Sox are not going to contend in 2014 under any circumstances, and are probably not going to contend in 2015. Why can't the White Sox rent Chris Sale to another team for that period for market value (let's say, just for argument's sake, 9.0m each year), and then get him back for 2016? The White Sox make a profit of 8.5m on a great contract over a two-year period, Sale gets to pitch for a contender, and then the White Sox get him back when they're a contender again.

Like I said, I'm sure there's a reason this can't be done. But if it could, it seems like a great idea!

For one, the player's union would revolt if the Sox were to "rent" Chris Sale at more than his contract price and the team pockets the profit instead of giving it to Sale. There's also the fact of determining market price, how to go about it, what happens if he suffers a career-ending injury during the rental period, and myriad other complications. Then we get to the whole "meaning of a contract" thing. Renting players out basically defeats the purpose of signing long-term deals: the security of being with one team for an extended period of time.

For one, the player's union would revolt if the Sox were to "rent" Chris Sale at more than his contract price and the team pockets the profit instead of giving it to Sale. There's also the fact of determining market price, how to go about it, what happens if he suffers a career-ending injury during the rental period, and myriad other complications. Then we get to the whole "meaning of a contract" thing. Renting players out basically defeats the purpose of signing long-term deals: the security of being with one team for an extended period of time.

It's just way too complicated to pull off.

Agree.
Plus, other teams would use Sale like a rental...overuse him. Then he gets injured and they return a broken product...oops.

I'm sure there's some reason that nobody's ever done this (that I know of), but what would prevent the White Sox from "renting" Chris Sale to another team for one or two season?

Think about it like renting an apartment you bought for cheap in a recently-turned-upscale neighborhood...Sale is owed 3.5m next year and 6.0m the year after. He's worth much more than that. The White Sox are not going to contend in 2014 under any circumstances, and are probably not going to contend in 2015. Why can't the White Sox rent Chris Sale to another team for that period for market value (let's say, just for argument's sake, 9.0m each year), and then get him back for 2016? The White Sox make a profit of 8.5m on a great contract over a two-year period, Sale gets to pitch for a contender, and then the White Sox get him back when they're a contender again.

Like I said, I'm sure there's a reason this can't be done. But if it could, it seems like a great idea!

Two guesses here.

1) The CBA most likely prohibits this

2) He signed a contract with the White Sox, not with all 30 MLB teams. The White Sox don't "own" Chris Sale therefore they can't rent him out to other teams.

First, the issue of players getting injured while they are under another teams watch. Second, could you imagine if this was allowed at any time? Teams with large payrolls like the Dodgers and Yankees could just rent several "mercenaries" every year for the 2nd half of a season without any long term commitment and out bid any other teams for these services.

Ease up. As a point of discussion, it is an interesting topic. The original poster wasn't necessarily suggesting it happen, but rather was asking about the concept. It isn't entirely unheard in other sports, as has been pointed out. On the otherhand, as others have mentioned, the rules in the CBA would never allow it along with some of the logistics regarding overuse on pitchers. All that said, there have been cases of "under the table" renting of players for half seasons. I can think of a number of examples of trades where the player was to become a free agent and re-signed with the original team after the end of the season.